My Favorite Pumpkin Dessert

My favorite dessert!
"Miss Sandi" as my daughter calls her from church made this wonderful dessert and now it's a favorite! I am making it for Thanksgiving for sure!!!!

Ingredients:

1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin 1 cup white sugar 3 eggs 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix 1 cup butter, melted 2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:

1.	Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
2.	In a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, sugar and eggs. Mix in the evaporated milk and pumpkin pie spice; pour into the prepared pan.
3.	Sprinkle the dry cake mix over the pumpkin and then drizzle melted butter over the cake mix.
4.	Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool, then invert onto a serving dish. Serve with whipped topping.

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Plan Monday
Here is the menu for the week...apparently its a super busy week! We don't seem to be home that much this week.

Monday: Hamburgers (hamburger patties bought on clearance for almost nothing and frozen...currently defrosting!)

Tuesday: Youth Leaders Meeting (food provided)

Wednesday: Youth Group/Awana (Subway!) Share 2 footlongs and pack some fruit, water, and chips to eat at church.

Thursday: Twilight Saga-New Moon- Eat out with friends!! Kids and hubby= leave them some Spaghetti (Homemade Gourmet) to enjoy.

Friday: HOME....all of us?? Slow Cooker to the rescue. Grandmothers Sunday Roast Chicken,(Homemade Gourmet) Green beans, Mashed Potatoes.

COST cooking...cook once serve twice

Last night for dinner I was feeling lazy so I looked in the freezer and found chicken tenders and some leftover rice in the fridge. Here is how I COST cooked with it (cook once serve twice).

Chicken Enchilada Soup

7 tablespoons	Homemade Gourmet® Chicken Enchilada Seasoning (or 1 mix)
1 14.5-ounce	can diced tomatoes
1 cup	milk
4 cups	water
1 12.5-ounce	1 cup (or more!) cooked chicken, shredded(optional)

(I add 1 cup cooked rice)

I added the leftover rice and warmed the soup on the stove and served topped with shredded cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream. It was super delicious.

A fast and easy meal that took less than 10 minutes from start to finish.

90% off at Target!

A few days ago I saw that Target had all their Halloween costumes and candy discounted to 75% off. Well guess what? Today it went for 90% off! Glad I held off and didn't get any costumes last time I was there. Today we came home with 2 Star Wars costumes. The first one we got (originally $39) for $3.99. The second one we scored for $1.99 (originally $19.99). Jenna got a Sharpay Costume (High School Musical....she wants FABULOUS) for $2.99 as well. Yay!
Here is a picture of Jenna. So for a good deal...just wait and keep on eye on the clearance aisle after a holiday. Ya never know what you might find.

Halloween with the kids

Halloween was super fun! I can't believe it's already over and we are only weeks away from Thanksgiving! Here are some pictures of the fun we had last weekend. Jenna was Cinderella and then she later changed into her Ariel costume from last year. Apparently Cinderella was too itchy! Josh was an Alien commander. This is the first year he wanted to be "scary." I love pumpkin carving, Halloween decorating and trick or treating with the kids. It was the first time tick or treating in our new neighborhood. It was nice to get around and meet some neighbors.

COST cooking...cook once serve twice

This morning I was thrilled to be able to head to my freezer and grab a meal to dump in my slow cooker. I had some yummy Grandmothers Sunday Roast (pork) all seasoned and prepped in a Ziploc bag. My slow cooker was hard at work all day. When I walked through the door at 5:30pm dinner smelled so yummy. I heated up some green beans and cooked up some instant mashed potatoes. Prep time? 5 minutes tops. Dinner was so delicious I told my husband "this is Christmas worthy."

Since I love to C.O.S.T. cook (cook once serve twice) I shredded the roast and made some pulled pork sandwiches to take to church tomorrow night. We will eat them for dinner before youth group.

My new kitchen

Menu Plan Monday

• Garlic Basil Chicken (COST cooking-cook once serve twice) leftovers get turned into
  
• White Chicken Chili and served with Corn Bread.

My Simple Shopping List Shopping List (Put together in a snap HERE)

	Ingredient(s)
1	Homemade Gourmet White Chicken Chili Mix
13-1/2 Cups	water
1 pound	cooked chicken, cubed
1 cup	sour cream
1/2 cup	whipping cream (or substitute ¼ cup water for low-fat optional)
3 pounds	boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup	soy sauce
1/4 cup	worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons	olive oil
3 tablespoons	Homemade Gourmet® Southwest Seasoning
1	Homemade Gourmet Beef and Barley Stew Mix with seasoning packet
1-1/2 pounds	stew meat
3 pounds	boneless, skinless chicken Breasts
2 tablespoons	Homemade Gourmet Garlic Basil Seasoning
1 14.5-ounce	can diced tomatoes
1	gallon sized zip top freezer bag
6	boneless, skinless chicken breasts (3 pounds)
2 tablespoons	Homemade Gourmet Southwest Seasoning
1 10-ounce	can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1	Homemade Gourmet® Italian Mozzarella Meatloaf Mix
1-1/2 pounds	boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenders
1 stick	butter or margarine, melted
1/3 cup	grated Parmesan Cheese
1	Homemade Gourmet Tortilla Soup Mix
1 14.5 ounce can	diced tomatoes

Fill my Freezer Friday

Stocking my freezer again FINALLY!

Summer fun at the Drive In with the kids! A plus of living in east county...the Santee Drive In!

Enjoying Youth Group Beach Trips

After slacking off for way too long....I finally restocked my freezer!
This past week I went grocery shopping with my coupons and club card and saved 47%
I came home and put together some meals for my freezer and we have not eaten out ALL WEEK!
Yeah for us. I even packed a dinner for youth group night (which is my biggest challenge for eating out temptation).

In the freezer:

-Taco Soup....A large bag all ready to heat up. Enough for 2 dinners
-Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce (thick and hearty!) enough for 2 dinners.
- Bag of Taco meat (all cooked and ready to defrost and use)
- A bag of banana bread muffins
- Bag of precooked and cut up into strips garlic basil Chicken Breasts.

In the fridge:
-Prepared and ready to use Chocolate Chip Cookie dough from scratch (we use our toaster oven and make just a few cookies at a time).
-Dill Sauce (inspired by Rock N Water...they make it the best!)
- Southwest Seasoned Whole Chicken (cooking in slow cooker for dinner TONIGHT).

Family update:
My new job at Shadow Mountain has been a perfect fit for our family. I am really enjoying the new job. Our house is in escrow and we can't wait to move out of our little temp apartment and have room for a real dining room table to eat at. We've been eating on TV trays all summer.
Tim has reported back to school this week and school starts back up on Monday for Josh and the week after for Jenna. She will attend Shadow Mountain Preschool 4 days a week.
Tim's dad has been diagnosed with stomach cancer and is in surgery at Stanford Medical center today. So prayers for the doctors to be able to remove it and for it not to be spread.

and I haven't scrapbooked in forever and am going through withdrawals. Any cool El Cajon lss and scrappers want to rescue me? All my stuff is in storage until we move.... )-; So I need to wait a few more weeks.

Menu Plan Monday

So much has been happening....I have not had time to blog (no internet and no iphone)
A quick update....I went from one terrific job at Westminster Pres to another terrific job at Shadow Mountain Community Church. In this economy I am thankful for consistent employment in a field I love (youth ministry). We moved from Escondido (North County San Diego) to El Cajon which is in East County San Diego. We are currently crammed in a little apartment while we house hunt for a home in the El Cajon area. We have a couple more offers in the works so we hope to land something soon. Living in a rather small apartment (with NO dining area what so ever) and insufficient air conditioning... I have been slacking in the meal planning department. Eating out has got the better of us for sure.

Today I cut my coupons and made my menu for the week. Here is is:

Monday: Garlic Lemon Pork (Season and Steam bag from Homemade Gourmet) and steamed white rice. COST cooking (cook once serve twice) tip: Save leftover Chicken for Friday's Chicken Fettucine.

Tuesday: Chicken in the Slow Cooker (it was on sale for way cheap!) with Veggies.
Wednesday: Youth Group Night and Taco salad is the plan (have tim bring it over when he drops off kiddos) or back up plan is Subway.

Thursday: Cold PLay Concert! so it's a date night.

Friday: Chicken Fettucine (using leftovers)

Saturday: Grill Turkey Burgers

Eat dinner at home.

Eating together as a family is important to me...can you tell? Family time at the dinner table is priceless. These past 2 years have been filled with a few hospital stays. These hospital stays always remind me how something as simple as a dinner around the table is often taken for granted. Everyone smiling and sitting at home around the dinner table demonstrates health, love, and a blessed life. The ability to have food, to enjoy health and conversation is something we take for granted.

Have you seen Oprah's "What can you live without" series? One of the challenges is to eat at home for a month! Do you think you can do that? When you eat at home TOGETHER at the dinner table the $$ we save and the memories made over dinner is more than you can imagine.

Here is Suze Orman's three-step money pledge:

• Don't spend any money for a day.
• Don't use your credit card for a week.
• Don't eat out in restaurants for a month.

Try it! I also encourage you to ban cell phones,TV, and computers for at least ONE day a week and see your entire family get closer. As a youth leader I see the distraction of technology and the negative impact it has on family togetherness. Enjoy the peace of not letting texting and technology dictate your day. You will be surprised at how refreshing it is to get back to the simple things!

Here is a Stampin Up thank you card I made with SAB 09 goodies!
Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper
Polka Dot Punches
Certainly Celery Ribbon
Pretties Kit

Handmade Arrow Shaped Album

A few weeks ago I went on a really fun Scrapbooking Bus Tour with Ever After Scrapbooks. Here is a sample of the Make N Take project they had us made. I bought the add-on kit and made an album about how my husband and I met and our beginnings. I had a really good time putting this together. My pal Heather designed the project which made it super easy to make with everything supplied and coordinated!

Book of Blessings

We were invited to an 18th birthday party with the theme of passing along wisdom and blessings to the 18 year old. I went home from church and whipped together a mini book of blessings. I used Starbucks coffee sleeves that I've been collecting to make the album.I replaced the Starbucks logo with "18." For the blessings and wisdom I scattered some expressions from the Creative Memories expressions of Faith vellum accents. Inserted in each sleeve is a picture, or a written note and quote of some kind. It was fun to make this album. Since I only had 2 hours to finish the book I didn't embellish as much as I wanted to. Since the album is for a guy I am sure he does not mind. When the album was complete, I tucked in two movie tickets for the birthday boy. Then my hubby put it in a princess gift bag for good humor (and we happen to have lots of girly gift bags around). Here are some picts (taken on a cell phone..so a bit fuzzy).

Menu Plan Monday

After my awesome grocery trip I came home and assembled 10 meals (plus one for tonight so that's 11 meals!) to put into my freezer.
I am well stocked with meals that just need to be thrown in the slow cooker, grilled or microwaved (in steamer bags). I got all the meat for these meals and a ton of groceries for 48% off!

Monday: BBQ beef sandwiches and corn on the cob
Tuesday: Corned Beef and Cabbage
Wednesday: Homemade Gourmet Season and Steam Broccoli Beef and Egg Rolls
Thursday: Homemade Gourmet Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce, Angel Hair Pasta, with Garlic Bread
Friday: Homemade Gourmet Garlic Lemon Pork (season and steam) with Mashed Potatoes
Saturday: Youth Group Event (In and Out)
Sunday: Honey Chipotle BBQ drumsticks (grill)

Want to know how I do my meal assembly? First I get all my meat (on sale) and come home and put it all into freezer bags (see picture) like the ones below. Then I grab my Homemade Gourmet pantry staples (my FAVE seasonings for quick and easy meals) and Season and Steam Bags (Glad steamer bags for microwave) and assemble all my meals for the week.

Family Fun Night

I took the kids to Blockbuster to get Kung Fu Panda for a fun movie night.
To complete the theme we enjoyed a super easy dinner of Broccoli Beef, egg rolls and
brown rice. I made the season and steam broccoli beef from Homemade Gourmet
(cooks in a microwave steamer bag so no dishes from it!) and threw some rice in
my rice cooker and put egg rolls in the oven. We all enjoyed eating in front of the TV
watching Kung Fu Panda. Season and Steam bags are my new FAVE from Homemade Gourmet. They come with a tear off grocery list of no more than a couple of items and
the meal cooks in the microwave in less than 15 minutes. We tried the Philly Cheese steak and
Fajitas last week. We've had the broccoli beef 3 times now...it's my favorite meal!

A friend loves at ALL times card

Here is a card made with an awesome scripture sentiment from Unity
Stamp Company. The pic is from my phone taken at night.... so sorry
for the bad quality! In youth ministry I see too much "conditional"
friendship or friends that are unloving towards each other and this
truth from scripture is my prayer for those strained friendships. A
friend loves at ALL times. Not just when it's convient, easy, popular
or cool... But at ALL times. So when we are unloving or unforgiving we
have to look in our hearts and see if we are really being a friend. We
tend to be critical spectators of people instead of passionate
particpators in faith and life.
My prayer is to be the kind of friend that can love like this and to
help teens grow in heathy friendships.

I finished the Twilight series now what ????

I finished Breaking Dawn today. I have been delaying finishing it.
Kind of like good chocolate... I'd treat myself to a little each day.
Being the last book of the 4 in the saga I wasn't ready for it to be
over yet! Like a good vacation that you want to last forever. These
books are soooooo good!
Today was emotionally exhausting (working with teens can be) and I
think getting up at 4am yesterday made me even more prone to emotional
ups and downs. I don't do well on little sleep. I was looking at my
sons homework and started crying because he is turning 7 on Monday. I
am not ready for my little boy to grow older.
So with all of that I decided to escape for 30 minutes and finish the
book as a treat. I can't wait to see the Twilight movie!!!! I am so
excited for it!!

I am at the Doctor Phil show

Look where I got to go today! I am enjoying the Doctor Phil show and
the Price is Right today with my MOPS group and LOVING a day with girlfriends.
I got to sit in the front row with my good friend Heather at the Doctor Phil Show.
Drew Carey is really nice and did a great job of interacting with the audience during commercial breaks. I was impressed with him. Doctor Phil was nice too. It was way different being there than seeing it on TV. He doesn't even meet the guest until they come on the stage to film. The topic was on marriage. But the situations he was counseling were kind of lame. One lady that dresses drag for a hobby with a super sweet husband that is uncomfortable with it. The other lady wanted a one year break from her marriage and had lots of issues they didn't even have time to unpack. I think the Price is Right is going to show on Jan 16th and I have no idea when the Doctor Phil show will air.

Here is a picture from Heather's blog.

Enjoying an afterschool stop

We are at Coffee Bean and Tealeaf enjoying pumpkin ice blended drinks.

My Twilight Inspired Cookbook

I just love this! Here is what the cookbook looks like. It's a Twilight inspired cookbook filled with recipes inspired by all the cooking and food mentioned in the Twilight Series. I made this over the weekend with a bunch of super cool and sweet Twilight Teens.

Twilight Tuesday

In honor of the fun I am having making a Twilight inspired cookbook...I will post a Twilight inspired recipe here on my blog every Tuesday until I run out! Of course the super cute recipe cards are not ALL going to be displayed...but peek around my blog for a preview of them. Ok Nevermind...I will give you a preview of another one! I just put my watermark on it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the cards I made. So here is the recipe for you:

Charlie's Chicken
* 1 (4 pound) chicken, cut into pieces
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 2 cups all-purpose flour for coating
* 1 teaspoon paprika
* salt and pepper to taste
* 2 quarts vegetable oil for frying


Take your cut up chicken pieces & put the flour in a large plastic bag. Season the flour with paprika, salt and pepper to taste. Dip chicken pieces in buttermilk then, a few at a time, put them in the bag with the flour, seal the bag and shake to coat well. Place the coated chicken on a cookie sheet or tray, and cover with waxed paper. LET SIT UNTIL THE FLOUR IS OF A PASTE-LIKE CONSISTENCY. Fill a large skillet (cast iron is best) about 1/3 to 1/2 full with vegetable oil. Heat until VERY hot. Put in as many chicken pieces as the skillet can hold. Brown the chicken in HOT oil on both sides. When browned, reduce heat and cover skillet; let cook for 30 minutes (the chicken will be cooked through but not crispy). Remove cover, raise heat again and continue to fry until crispy. Drain the fried chicken on paper towels. Depending on how much chicken you have, you may have to fry in a few shifts. Keep the finished chicken in a slightly warm oven while preparing the rest.


"I beat Charlie Home. When he walked in I was just taking the the fried chicken out of the pan and laying it on a pile of paper towels." page 141 New Moon

Dream Spaghetti

1 8-ounce	package angel hair pasta
1 16-ounce	carton cottage cheese
1 8-ounce	container sour cream
1	® Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce Mix, prepared
1 pound	ground beef
2 cups	shredded mozzarella cheese
	non-stick cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large skillet, cook ground beef until browned, drain well. Add spaghetti sauce; stir and simmer. 2. Cook pasta according to package directions. Spray 13x9x2 baking pan with non-stick cooking spray; add drained pasta. 3. Blend cottage cheese and sour cream together and spoon over pasta. Pour meat and spaghetti sauce mixture on top of cheese layer. 4. Top with mozzarella and bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Serve hot.

Menu Plan Monday

Nothing like being away for the weekend and coming home to your husband reminding you out of the blue that he will be away at 6th grade camp all week. He totally forgot and so did I! So last night I made Dream Spaghetti for dinner. It seems to be a meal that never ends and miraculously multiplies itself into lunch and dinner and then lunch again. And then another dinner or two! It's a good one to serve up all warm and gooey and then enjoy the leftovers for as long as the the kids are willing to have them! Super cheap. 25 cents a serving. Cheaper than a Costco hot dog. I put several Glad-ware bowls of this into the freezer too!


So here is the menu for the week...even with Tim away I don't want to run to McDonalds or order Pizza just because I can.

Monday: Dream Spaghetti (from Sundays leftovers)

Tuesday: Make Taco Soup out of the Southwest Chicken I made on Sunday for lunch. (COST cooking! Cook Once Serve Twice)

Wednesday: Season and Steam Broccoli Beef (done in 12 minutes!!)

Thursday: Leftover Taco Soup drained and served in corn tortillas as tacos. (COST Cooking)

Friday: Jr. High youth group (means pizza)

Saturday: Grill some Chipotle seasoned steaks.

Sunday: Quesadillas made with leftover Chipotle Seasoned steaks. (COST cooking)

My latest creative projects

I wanted to update the art in the bathroom and so I used my new Giggle Grove set that my wonderful Mother In Law got me for my birthday (she gave me a Unity Stamp Company Gift Certificate....how fun!) . I used designer paper from both Stampin Up for the images and green dsp from Creative Memories (from the Everyday Power Palette). It gives my bathroom a nice new look and was easy enough to make using the frames that were already there.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Taco Soup Served over tortilla chips and topped with shredded cheese.
Tuesday: Youth Group so probably pizza or maybe I will make Dream Spaghetti
Wednesday: Italian Crock Pot Chicken
Thursday: Burgandy Beef Tips (Slow Cooker)
Friday: Eat Out (youth group trip)
Saturday: Southwest Chicken and Spanish Rice (COST cooking) Cook Once Serve Twice and have
Tacos on Sunday with the leftover chicken.

Twilight Cookbook Class (all Twilight fans welcome)

Seeing that my Twilight Themed Cookbook Class has gotten a lot of hits lately I decided to post the info here on my personal blog:

Want a Twilight inspired cookbook?
Check out all the info Here on my Typepad blog. Thanks for looking!

Twilight Inspired Cookbook

I was talking with the girls in my youth group about the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyer and had the idea of perhaps starting a Twilight inspired cooking class. If you read the books, you will notice that she does a lot of cooking...and that food is often mentioned. That conversation evolved into a Twilight Themed Cook Book Class...where we will make a cookbook based on the series. Here is a sample of the first recipe card I made for the class. I used Storybook Creator Plus from Creative Memories to create the 4x6 recipe card. They have an awesome digital kit called Recipe Book. Now I wish the publishers of the Twilight series would hire me to help in the creation of such a book. Wouldn't that be fun? I am sure it would be a HUGE hit. Seeing that I have no idea how to get such an idea proposed to the right people...it remains a "hmmm ...What if...." in the back of my mind. If you live in the area and want to join the fun of creating a Twilight inspired cookbook let me know! It's happening October 19th at 3pm. If you live out of the area, you can order a class kit by mail and not miss out on the fun!

Cards made using Creative Memories Supplies

I've been trying to use up my stash of supplies before new stuff arrives. So here are some cards I made using Creative Memories paper, stickers, and vellum accents. The two Christmas Cards were made using the (retired) Christmas themed paper album kit. The "Relax" card was made from the (retired) Everyday Power Palette Collection. The Everyday palette is my least favorite color scheme from CM so I wanted to challenge myself and see if I could make a cute card out of it. My new Tag punch from Creative Memories was fun to use on the Warmest Wishes Christmas card (bottom)

Menu Plan Monday

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Sweet and Sour Chicken and Egg Rolls from Trader Joes frozen section.
Tuesday: Youth Group Pizza
Wednesday: Burgandy Beef Tips
Thursday: Season and Steam Fajtas (made in Glad Steamer bags)
Friday: Bunko Night...
Saturday: Grill some chicken
Sunday: Season and Steam Broccoli Beef (Homemade Gourmet) and egg rolls (Trader Joes)

My latest scrapbook page with Creative Memories Storybook Creator

This is a digital scrapbooking layout I made using Storybook Creator Plus from Creative Memories. The paper and elements are from the Mod Digital Power Palette and doodles from the digital embellishment doodles kit (from CM). The sentiment is from the Gazebo digital kit (from CM). The pictures are from our trip this summer up to Northern California for a family reunion. The kids enjoyed some treats from the Soda Fountain and we all sat for a brief moment to listen to a piano concert while we enjoyed our dessert.

Card for grandma

Here is a card I made using my FAVORITE Bird from Stampin Up Always set.

Sunday Stampin

Here is a thank you card (on top) I made with So Many Scallops from Stampin Up and
KOTM July08 from Unity Stamp Company. The birthday card was made with Older and Wiser from Stampin Up. The DSP is from SU and the rest of the cardstock is from Creative Memories.

This week

This is an update on the week for us: 

Jenna started preschool on Tuesday (9/9) morning and was giddy and smiling ear to ear to do so. She has been seeing her big brother go off to school each morning and now wants a turn.  Every time I told her today you get to go to preschool she replied "Yipee."  She goes 2 days a week for half a day and LOVES it! 

Tuesday...was my was also my 11 week OBGYN appointment. After the weekend I had... I was sure there was no longer a pregnancy in my body  and there isn't. I will say that physically I feel so much better. Just a little bummed. I keep dreaming of babies and being pregnant. So we will see....lots to think about! I will spare you the details but I was surrounded by girlfriends and waited on hand and foot all last week and weekend. So I feel very loved and resting in that. Nothing like getting meals, free babysitting and extra TLC.  I love my friends and church family! They rock.  Tuesday is also  youth group night.  My husband brought me flowers and we enjoyed a yummy dinner and b-day cake at a youth group home. 

I also got to celebrate my 32nd bday on Sunday (the 7th).  We picked up the kids from my mom and dad (they helped watch the kids while I went on my scrapbooking getaway) and celebrated at my favorite restaurant (Old Spaghetti Factory) with some good friends from church.  

Scrapin the weekend away.

Having an amazing time with the girl pals and Scrappin (and miscarrying...)

 all weekend long. Here are some pages I finished.   Strange to be having fun while going through something dreadful all at the same time....had to call the obgyn.  He called me back from the speaker phone in the OR. Crazy!  I could hear him doing a C-Section in the background.  I was worried that I was bleeding too much. 

Scripture themed layout

I think most of my friends and family know by now...and if not and you think I should have personally said something to you I am sorry! I can be such a slacker of a friend.

But it's been a weird summer for us. Here is the story:
I am pregnant! Or was. Or Still am. Really not sure.
So those of you who were wondering if I fell of the diet wagon...well I did!
I was sure enjoying the free for all too.

At 10 weeks pregnant I went to the ER yesterday because spotting turned into bleeding and my OBGYN said "go to the ER." To make a long story short that's where I went.

The ER doc said it was "a threatened abortion." Strangely enough the last ultra sound at my OBGYN revealed for a tiny second or two possible twins (two yolk sacs) but no confirmation that both were viable. It was hard to get a good peek at one, much less two.

With the craziness of my body right now... my hope is that I lost one and get to keep one, but nothing has looked reassuring to that end.

I go on Tuesday back to my OBGYN (who is on vacation this week...driving me crazy!) but I don't think my pregnancy will make it to that point. It was all a big surprise for us and has been a strange journey all along.

So now you are in the know. I really don't mind people knowing what's been going on.
Good news and bad news are all a part of real life. I know God doesn't waste a hurt.

And PRAY For the pregnancy to make it of course is ideal...but God's peace and comfort if it does not. My story isn't anything new. Plenty of women have gone through all this before (and worse), but it sure is not a pleasant experience. I was excited about this little summer "surprise."

We were waiting until my appointment (at 11 weeks) on Tuesday to make the pregnancy "news" public (when we would know if their was one or 2) but seems we won't have any news to share.
Definitely bummed but thankful for the blessing of the 2 kids I do have. So if you are a friend or family member that reads my blog, you now have the full scoop.

I am doing fine (a little bummed) but looking forward to a weekend of scrapbooking with some amazing ladies. I am prepared to have fun regardless of everything else. A Sunday off of work is rare for me and time away by myself that is not related to work is also rare.

In the midst of the craziness, I will admit it has been awesome to get some meals delivered (-; and extra TLC from my friends and family. So thanks for that! I am supposed to be on bed rest but hard to do with a 3 year old. I don't think resting will delay the inevitable too much. What ever will be...will be of course! And I will bless the name of the Lord through the good and bad. (Nehemiah 9:5b).

Here is a scrap book page I made to journal my feelings at the moment. I wanted to document this event. Even in the midst the unknown I feel so much peace from the Lord and comfort with the sweet little things people have been doing for me.

My latest card

I made this fun card for a co-workers birthday. It was cased off a
layout from a card I received from a good friend.I used stamps from
Unity Stamp Company (Cupcakes A La Yummy and August Kit of the month)and from Stampin UP.

House Update: And also we qualified for our
house (my Cityscape dream house) but need 10k $$ for a down payment.
We make too much money for a First Time homebuyer program but too
little to have a ton saved. But I am excited that we qualify for
something! (-; We do enjoy our current living situation so close to my work.
It is super convenient.

Look what my postman brought!

More Unity Love! The school rock star set was what I won last week on 
the Unity Blog Hop Thursday. I also got the Eco Chic in this shipment
too. Now I need to make something. (-:

Digital Scrapbooking with Storybook Creator

Here is a layout I made using digital kits (earthy outdoors) and doodle embellishments from Creative Memories. I just LOVE how easy this program is to use. I HATE trying to figure out photoshop. This is from a summer youth group trip to Rock N Water near Sacramento. It is a great place to go for White Water Rafting. We had a GREAT time!

My dream Cityscape House!!!

updated on November 3, 2009

NOTE: the houses on the left are the Cityscape homes. The pic on the right are the Park Ave row homes of which we just bought!

I just LOVE these Cityscape houses by Michael Crews. I REALLY want one.
Ever since the day they were built I've been in love. They are in a less than desirable neighborhood
but hey...more chances for making a difference in that kind of community, right? I toured the home when they were going for 499,900 or something like that. Maybe more. After walking through these amazing homes I went to Starbucks and cried in my Latte because I wanted one so badly. I even took my youth group there and talked about "impossible dreams" that are made possible with God as part of a Bible Study.

Guess what? They are up for auction. Apparently no one else wanted to live in that neighborhood and the builder has had a difficult time selling them. They are starting at $149,000
These are NEW homes . 2,000 square foot homes. Oh pray that we can get one!!! We are at least going to try. Wish we had rich family that could help. Ive always loved "Row" homes. The floor plan on these homes ROCK! Come on Michael Crews...you know ya want to help a youth leader and school teacher get into one.




FAST forward to Sept 2009....Gina gets her ROW HOME! Yay! Its just in El Cajon and not Escondido.... (-;

First Day of School

Yesterday my baby started First grade. Wanted to post of a picture of it to share.

Mommy and me class

Josh is off to his first day of First Grade so Jenna and I went to
Starbucks and to a Mommy and Me craft class at the Pink Pineapple. A
day for us girls.

I should so be in bed!!!

We have church tomorrow and I really should be in bed! But instead it seems that bunches of birthdays have managed to sneak upon me and I am trying to finish cards and little gifts! Here is a bookmark I made for a friend who has a birthday tomorrow. She will get this late because I need to mail it on Monday. So I could have just finished it tomorrow but we have a teen birthday party to go to (thus the earlier post of a card for a 16 bday)
This is a bookmark made with the Unity Stamp Company July kit of the month.
I just love the tree and the owl. So darn cute! My grandpa's birthday is this week I am pretty sure(I hope I haven't missed it yet) and Tim's grandma has an August birthday that I hope I haven't missed! I have cards to make...and it's soooo much fun but takes me awhile to get going.

Dropping By Birthday card

This is a card I made with a Hostess set from Stampin Up called
"Older and Wiser"
It's super cute! We were invited to a birthday party for a 16 year
old guy and I made this. Inside has a slot to hold
a gift card. I enjoyed coloring the Monkey.

Wii Got wii fit!

The cookies worked! The awesome Target electronics guy saved us one
(he said cookies always work!). We were on a youth group trip when it
came in, but they saved us one! Josh has been exercising every day
now I need too!

I finally made a card.

I needed a birthday card for a friend I am seeing tomorrow and I was
able to stamp one tonight. I used the tree from the Unity July kit of
the month and a bird with a birthday hat on from Stampin Up's Pun Fun
set. The ribbon tape is from my stash of scraps and it matched
perfectly. Stamping is so much fun!

Wii fit

So after a month (or more) of trying to get a wii fit at Target (we
have a giftcard for Target) the kids and I made cookies and are off to
deliver them to the electronics department at Target. Wish us luck!
I'll let you know if we find success.

Live from David Crowder concert

Of course...they have 4 macs on the stage for music and no PC'S. True creative genius requires a mac for full uninhibited expression. Creative people are mac people of course!

I am a die hard David Crowder Band Fan and
JUST LOVE their music. It's a Christian rock worship band.
They are from Texas and lead worship at University Baptist Church.
I heard them for the first time at a Christian conference called DC/LA
years ago and have been following their music ever since.
What was funny was that I spent a lot of money for 6 row tickets (the day tickets came out)
and didn't even pay attention to the fact that it was a MercyMe concert (with Crowder opening for the them). There are a few MercyMe songs I like, but their style is a bit too mellow for me and the crew I was with last night. So after Crowder played (for an hour) we got up and gave our 6 row tickets away to 4 MercyMe fans sitting in the back of the area.

We had an amazing time! I can't wait to see them at the National Youth Workers Convention in
the fall.

Works for Me Wednesday

Talk about re-using
Here is a handy ribbon holder made from a plastic tomato container.
The holes were already there and I just need to punch a few more holes with my
Crop-o-Dile.

Vista Print and Maxim Magazine

I will NEVER order from Vista Print ever again unless they change their business practices. This has me so steamed that I needed to share....

We were at a wonderful family reunion and one of the college students there was looking at Maxim magazine. Being a youth leader and seeing that this dude was wearing a WWJD bracelet, my husband and I just had to say SOMETHING about the irony of the moment.
Maxim markets itself as a magazine about "Hot Girls and Sex"

To make a long story short we came home from vacation to find a Maxim magazine sitting on our kitchen table that was lovingly sent for FREE from Vista Print. A subscription (that I think is free but now I want to check my credit card statement). We were so embarrassed that it came to our home when our 17 year old dog sitter was there getting our mail for us. Wow look what her youth leaders read in their spare time.

Then I walked to church and shared this story with our secretary. Guess what she pulls out from the recycling bin ? A Maxim sent to our church office because our preschool ordered off of Vista Print too. Apparently I am not the only one this has happened to. I found similar cases on other blogs too while googling Vista Print scams.

I do not want a Maxim magazine subscription delivered to my home.
It is not a porn magazine, but close to one! A guys version of Cosmopolitan (which I throw away if I ever find a youth group teen reading one)
As a youth leader it is really awkward to be away on vacation and
have our teen dog sitter bring in our mail only to find Maxim in there!

Of course Vista Print says it's my fault...I must have accidentally clicked to accept the free offer.
I did NOT CLICK and ACCEPT the offer for this!
Vista web programmers and sales scam-ers need to re-configure their website so
that "accidents" like this don't happen.

and if you are going to trick us into getting a magazine, why choose one that is so trashy and offensive?

I am done with Vista Print. They have poor business practices. If you call their customer service you get help from people in some other country answering the phone who can't help much with anything. If you get a Vista Print magazine by accident you can email them at
vistaprint@m2mags.com

Menu Plan Monday

My menu for the week is up and you can see it here

fun in the Redwoods

We are at Mount Hermon having fun with the family. Here is a picture
of the kiddos.

In line for the dark knight

In line with my dear Hubby getting ready to see the Dark Knight (new Batman). I love
Bruce Wayne!!!! The Red Bull ladies were just here handing out free
drinks and we are next to a Peets Coffee for our caffeine fix.
Midnight showings are fun! There are lots of people in line and we
have 3 hours left.

In Santa Cruz, Ca

I won't be blogging too much this week since we are enjoying family
time up north this week. We went to the Boardwalk last night and had a
nice time.

Another day in paradise

Having fun at the beach with the family

Works for Me Wednesday

I enjoy cooking but I also like to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible so that I have more time with my kids. These steamer bags really work for me! I used to buy these
because I wanted a quick side dish of veggies that I don't have to think about. I would just toss them in the microwave and that's it!!
but have found that I can use these
Glad steamer bags for much less and use my own fresh or frozen veggies. I just toss in the veggies and look at the chart on the bag to see how long they need to cook. I add a tsp or so of my favorite seasonings and the kids fight over the veggies now! These are GREAT! Super easy and that works for me.

My first Unity Card

This card is the best of both worlds and MY FIRST card using a Unity Stamp set!
I used the adorable cupcake from Cupcakes A La Yummy. It needed a border so I used the scallop border from the Sweet Dreams set from Stampin Up. The paper and ribbon is from SU and the other "bling" from Michaels.
I am still a beginner in the stamping world and hope to one day make cards as amazing as these
here
and here

Meal Plan Monday

My menu for the week >Here<
(we actually do eat Homemade Gourmet EVERYDAY!)
Look and you can see what the Abbas family is eating this week. My recipes are also posted. Check it out.

It's Summer!

Now that my husband finally figured out how to maintain our pool after "cutting back" and not paying $80 a month for someone else to do it...our pool is officially blue again! Yipee! With the recent warm weather we are all enjoying the pool daily. Well actually more than that! We are all in the pool and swimming around once, twice, and sometimes 3 times in one day.

Menu Monday

Want to see what my family is ACTUALLY eating this week?
My menu for the week can be found HERE

Look what the postman delivered

My first Unity Stamps arrived today. I can't wait to use them.

Sweet 16 Stampin Up card

We went to a sweet 16 party yesterday and I got to make this super fun
card. I used Sticky Cuts Letters from Stampin Up and the SU glitter.
Of course I added a rub on and punches too. making cards is really fun!

More Digital Scrappin With Creative Memories

These are more Disney pages I created online using Storybook Creator Plus from Creative Memories. I love their Disney Digital Kits. Perfect for Scrappin our Disney World picts.

Works for Me Wednesday

Seeing that my kids go through an entire case of juice boxes from Costco in a week (that's alot!) I was on the look out for an alternative. I found these at Target for about less than $2 They are great (unless you are anti plastic...but we hand wash and these have a #5 on the bottom so I think we are safe) because:

1) Environmentally friendly with less waste
2) Saves money...juice boxes cost more
3) I can more easily control how much juice my kids get (they can't sneak in the pantry or fridge and just help themselves as easily). My daughter will hide in a corner and sneak juice boxes from our Costco stash! So this is a way to make sure that doesn't happen! After they drink their "juice" I wash them and put ice water in them for the rest of the day.
4) I fill them up at night and they are all ready for the morning.
5) They are inexpensive and super easy to replace or buy more
6) They don't leak...not yet anyways!

The straw on these are pretty lame (and difficult to clean) so we don't use the straw. The kids just tip them over and drink them like a watter bottle. Since my youngest is 3 it works for me!

Get more ideas here at Works for Me Wednesday
hosted by Rocks in My Dryer.
Oh and if you are wondering about plastics and why they are bad there is info here....on this blog I found.
I have not looked into it all that much yet. Just don't make me give up my Diet Coke! I am not ready for that.

I got tagged!

Yes...I have been TAGGED by Christi who you can visit here
She is a pretty amazing stamper.

The "rules" of the game: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

Here it goes:

Ten years ago: Ten years ago I was 21 and a new bride. We got married 10 years and 1 month ago and enjoying ALL the benefits of being married without kids.

Five things in today’s 'to do list:
Update youth blog
Email youth weekly event reminder
Update youth myspace
Plan youth group lesson
Go to and run youth group with my children along...was actually REALLY fun once we managed to get everyone there.

Snacks I enjoy: Everything that is the problem. Right now I am really enjoying red seedless grapes.

Things I would do if I was a millionaire: Purchase this house that I just love but have it built in a nice neighborhood with lots of parking and an ocean view (-;

Places I have lived: San Diego...for most of my life with a short 3 years in Yuma Arizona when I was a pretty little. Around 1st grade-3rd grade.

Here are the people that I am tagging: Hmmmm. I don't know yet.

Menu Plan Monday

My menu for the week with recipes are posted here

Family Fun Friday

We went to the beach today and last Friday also. A great way to escape the heat wave we are experiencing in Southern California. One fun thing about my job are beach trips!
We took our Sr. High youth group last week and our Jr. High youth group today. I highly recommend going to the beach with teens who can help you lug all your gear. My kiddos usually come along on youth group beach trips and of course had a wonderful time. Everyone will sleep well tonight. The pictures above are from today. It was funny that our Jr. Highers were asking "How long til we get there?" They seemed to think the beach is far away. Hmmm. 35 minutes is all. We pull into the lot and see the "Zoney Plates" (what we call Arizona summer visitors) and I remind the kids how lucky we are to live this close to the beach.

Works For Me Wednesday

Works for Me Wednesday Tip:
Ok it's after midnight and technically Thursday...but close enough!

Need a way to entertain the kids during long car rides? Try Expo Markers to draw on the windows in the car. My husband is a teacher and we have these things floating around everywhere. Some of them actually work too and we keep a few of the working ones in the car. I let my kids draw on the car windows and it wipes right off. We also keep these in the bathroom to leave loving notes or reminders on our bathroom mirror.

A Disney Page Using Storybook Creator Plus

Here are some pages I made using Storybook Creator Plus from Creative Memories. Although I love my mac and Photoshop...this CM program is just too easy and fun to use to pass up! I can use all the fun digi goodies from everywhere on the web and my Creative Memories digital kits all in the same program with ease. Last night when I went scrappin with my friends all I had to do was bring my laptop and my pictures on a CD (burned from Iphoto on my mac). It was so easy to scrapbook and clean up was simple...just shut the computer and unplug. I can get to lovin this! I am on the computer WAY TOO MUCH and working with REAL PAPER and adhesive is still fun too (just really messy!) And the Digital Kits are instant downloads so I get instant gratification! Just order and download...no shipping to pay for and no UPS man to wait for either (hey it saves gasoline too by shopping online).

Father's Day Project

I went to Office Depot to pick up some envelopes and look what I found...a pen holder that had Wild About You from Stampin' Up! written all over it. So I picked this up for $3 and decorated it. 

Cute huh? 

Today was one lazy Saturday. The kids were tired and worn out from a fun day at the beach yesterday. Tim and I were tired from staying up way too late last night and slept in for as long as the kiddos would let us.  I had so much fun going to Ever After Scrapbooks with a couple of friends last night and FINALLY having a Friday night off. I usually work on Friday nights and it was a blast to actually have a fun ladies night out with girlfriends to look forward too. I'll post some pages I made later. (-;  I need to get off the computer now and give my kiddos a bath.  

Works For Me Wednesday

I was reading this awesome blog called the Grocery Cart Challenge

which is full of GREAT ideas for cutting DOWN your grocery bill.

I found this recipe for Do-it-Yourself Microwave Popcorn and had to give it a try.

I had Josh scoop out all the ingredients and put it into the brown bag. We used REAL staples to seal the bag and everything turned out just fine!

Here is the recipe and for more detailed instructions read HERE

A brown paper lunch sack
¼ cup popcorn kernels
1 teaspoon of olive oil
Salt or dry seasonings of your choice

add ingredients to brown paper bag, shake, squeeze out air, staple and microwave for about 2 minutes (adjust time as necessary).

Don't want a greasy paper bag? Here is a great microwave popper that I've used before and just loved!

Nothing like summer

Summer is here.... Complete with sack races at our annual All Church
Picnic. Here is josh (jenna is in the background) doing a sack race.
We just had youth Sunday and that kept me super busy last week.

Do you have meal starters in your freezer?

Take some time this week and cook up a large batch of lean ground beef
and stock your freezer with these easy meal starters. They defrost
easily and cook quickly even when frozen! I have 4 quart size bags of
these meal starters in my freezer. What's in yours?

Are these cute or what?

So these ideas are totally cased (copy and share everything) from
other stamping blogs but i just had to make these sweet cards for
myself.

Our 10 year anniversary cake

We are celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary this weekend
And look at this awesome cake I had made for my husband. The kids and
I were so excited to welcome my husband home from work on Friday and
present this cake to him. My 3 year old asked to eat the eyes and we
all sat and enjoyed it together (my diet is on pause for the weekend).

Sea World

I got to attend a Sea World field trip with my son Joshua and his
kindergarten class. We had so much fun. One of the perks of living in
San Diego.

Monday

I really need to cook something fun for dinner for my hubby. He has been a bit neglected in the food arena since I started Jenny Craig. I still cook a bunch of my Homemade Gourmet stuff because it's quick and easy...but not as often as I used to! Today is my day off and I was way too lazy today! Not FLYING much at all.

The only thing productive I did was play with Jenna (dd 3 year old) and wash the dog. I did some dishes and now I need to go finish them. I made a fun card as part of an online chat and stamp thing earlier today. My first time trying that out. I am so behind on laundry and it's really hot here in Southern California. We don't have air conditioning so all I want to do is sleep and eat ice cream, but I can't!!! We did discover a new frozen yogurt place called the Yogurt Factory that has really yummy lowfat yogurt. You walk in and grab a cup, fill it up yourself from about 10 choices of flavors and head to a topping bar and pile it on.

They weigh the cup and ya pay. It cost our family of 4 about $10 I think. It was fun because I could actually have my "milk" serving and they had fresh sliced strawberries as a topping. That was a "fruit" serving. I love it when I can find a fun treat that fits in my diet plan.

Sunday

So it's been super busy around here. A non-stop whirlwind of a weekend. Birthday parties, cancelled family plans, youth group events, and EXTREME heat here in San Diego. I did manage to STAMP today and I am happy about that. I made a birthday card with designer series paper and my new Wild About You set. I think that's the name!! The only thing I can't figure out is what to do with the green tab punch. It needs a touch of something but I can't figure it out. Hmmm.

So anyways...Monday I hosted an Arbonne skin care class/party and I just LOVE their products. I tried the NutriMinC® RE9 Set Special by Arbonne for a week and it was truly amazing. My skin looked healthier and my "smile" lines and dark circles under my eyes improved A LOT! Want this stuff ? Let me know and I can get you hooked up or at least some samples to try. I scored it for a deal with my hostess benefits. Whooo hooo.

At the beach on Mothers day

Another dinner made in my rice cooker.

This is so easy... Add leftover Southwest Chicken, add the Skillet
Burrito mix, add a can of tomatoes and some water and dinner is
cooking. I am also using leftover chicken and whipping up some white
bean chili for tomorrow. Since I am on the Jenny Craig diet it has
been so helpful to have some healthy meals all cooked and in the
fridge for the rest of the family.

My latest Card Creation

This is my latest card creation. I made this instead of watching LOST last night. And instead of snacking!
I know I am supposed to post the "recipe" for the card but I can never remember what I used and am too busy to go and look. Of course I used Stampin Up designer series paper and rub ons but I can't remember the exact names of everything.

But I LOVE the card. (0;

and here is the matching paper clip too. I love SU punches!

Weigh in Wednesday

I made an awesome card today for our worship band leader who got a new gig. I am bummed I didn't take a picture of it. It was awesome. My pastor liked it so much he asked me to make a card for for his wife for Mother's Day. (-; My first card client. Today I made cards with some girls from youth group and it was so much fun. We sat and crafted and talked about life, faith, love, etc...
Modern day quilting, huh?
Well off to bed! I have my Jenny Craig weigh in tomorrow. I resisted Costco samples and hot dogs tonight. Yeah me. Down to 132 and getting slim for summer.
Whooohooo.

Stampin Up - a set on Flickr

Stampin Up - a set on Flickr
a link to a photo gallery of some of my Stampin Up projects I have made over the past 6 months.

Calendar I Created Using Storybook Creator Plus

This is a calendar I created for my job using Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus. It does everything I used to do on photoshop, but much easier to figure out. I used a calendar digi scrappin kit from Heather Ann Designs and some of the fun clipart from the Gazebo digital kit from Creative Memories.

A card I made tonight

So I took the photo with my cell phone so it could have come out
better but I love this card! It is the first card I made so far that I
really really love. I can't wait to mail it. Made with the 'she's all
that' stamp set from the occasions mini (from stampin up). I can
totally see how this card making thing can be addictive!

More Stampin Up Projects

Here are some more projects from the weekend Stampin Up event I was able to attend (Thanks Heather!!!) at the Olive Garden. We made 3 projects and it was a blast.

Yeah a day of crafting

I am at a Stampin Up event here in town put on by local demonstrators.
Look what I made. I am having fun and managing to stick with my diet
and avoid the temptation of food at the Olive Garden. I am thankful
that my husband is watching the kids so I can enjoy 3 hours of
crafting. (-:

Yes you can stock your freezer with EASY meals!

This was just too great not to share. Here is a list of a TON of meals you can make using the Homemade Gourmet 4 meals in 4 minutes way! (Just bag your meat, add the seasoning and some easy ingredients and "smoosh"). There is no reason your freezer can't be filled with wonderful meals. (-; I got this list from Homemade Gourmet and it was put together by Cindy Pirtle who works at Home Office.

MORE, MORE, MORE 4 MEALS IN 4 MINUTES
RECIPES by Cindy Pirtle, Homemade Gourmet

Do you have 20 meals in your freezer?
If you love 4 meals in 4 minutes and you have mastered the SMOOSH technique,
you are ready to move forward. When I return home from my monthly Sam’s/Costco visit, I wonder if everyone’s freezer looks like Tami Van Hoy’s freezer (HG founder) ? I promise you that if you will fill your freezer just one month, you will be so spoiled by the time, money and effort you saved you will repeat this every month. AND DON’T SAY YOU DON’T HAVE ROOM IN YOUR FREEZER . . .20 meals can easily fit on one shelf in your freezer.

WHITE MEAT (CHICKEN/PORK):
(Pork includes pork chops, pork roast, pork loin, pork tenderloin

1. Chicken/Pork, SW Marinade, can of Rotel
2. Chicken/Pork, SW Marinade, 1 cup picante sauce
3. Chicken/Pork, SW Marinade, can diced tomatoes
4. Chicken/Pork, Roast Seasoning, Cream of Mushroom Soup, water
5. Chicken/Pork, Garlic Basil Seasoning, can diced tomatoes
6. Chicken/Pork, Garlic Basil Seasoning, can diced tomatoes, bag frozen peppers and onions
7. Chicken/Pork, Spaghetti Sauce Seasoning, can diced tomatoes
8. Chicken/Pork, Garlic Lemon mix, can chicken broth
9. Chicken/Pork, Garlic Lemon mix, 2 cups liquid margarita mix
10. Chicken/Pork, Garlic Lemon mix, can chicken broth, soy sauce and honey
11. Chicken/Pork, BLT seasoning, can pineapple tidbits, pineapple juice
12. Chicken/Pork, Gumbo mix, can of low sodium chicken broth
13. Chicken/Pork, Cilantro Citrus mix, can of chicken broth
14. Chicken/Pork, Cilantro Citrus mix, liquid margarita mix
15. Chicken/Pork, Kansas City rub, can diced tomatoes
16. Chicken/Pork, Kansas City rub, brown sugar, tomato sauce, water
17. Chicken/Pork, Taco Soup mix, can of Rotel
18. Chicken/Pork, Chicken Enchilada Soup mix, can of rotel
19. Chicken/Pork, Chicken Enchilada Soup mix, can of diced tomatoes
20. Chicken/Pork, Chicken Enchilada Soup mix, picante sauce
21. Chicken/Pork, Catalina Dressing prepared, (ketchup, oil and water)
22. Chicken/Pork, Raspberry Velvet prepared, (raspberry preserves, oil and water)
23. Chicken/Pork, Lemon Poppyseed Dressing prepared, (oil and lemon juice)
24. Chicken/Pork, Tomato Basil Soup mix, 2 cans tomato puree
25. Chicken/Pork, Spaghetti Sauce mix, can of diced tomatoes, small can tomato sauce
26. Chicken/Pork, Orange Vinegrette prepared
27. Chicken/Pork, Chipolte mix, raspberry preserves, water
28. Chicken/Pork, Chipolte mix, canola/vegetable oil
29. Chicken/Pork, Maria’s Hot Sauce prepared
30. Chicken/Pork, Maria’s Hot Sauce, can of rotel

BEEF:

1. Roast, Roast seasoning, cream of mushroom, water
2. Roast, Garlic Basil, can of diced tomatoes
3. Stew Meat, Roast Seasoning, cream of mushroom, water, frozen stew veggies
4. Stew Meat, Roast Seasoning, cream of mushroom, can of mushrooms, red wine
5. Stew Meat, Taco Seasoning, can green beans, can of potatoes
6. Round Steak, Garlic Basil, can of diced tomatoes, bag frozen peppers and onions
7. Round Steak, Tomato Basil Soup mix, 2 cans tomato puree
8. Round Steak, Spaghetti Sauce, can of diced tomatoes, bag frozen peppers and onions
9. Round Steak, Chipolte mix, canola/vegetable oil
10. Fajita Meat, Southwest Marinade, rotel
11. Fajita Meat, Chipolte mix, canola/vegetable oil
12. Fajita Meat, Maria’s Hot Sauce prepared


PORK RIBS:
1. Kansas City rub, canola/vegetable oil
2. Southwest Marinade, canola/vegetable oil

ITALIAN SAUSAGE:
1. Garlic Basil mix, can diced tomatoes, bag frozen peppers and onions
2. Spaghetti Sauce mix, can diced tomatoes, bag frozen peppers and onions

PORK/BEEF SAUSAGE:
1. Velvety White Sauce, BLT mix, canned potatoes

FISH/SHRIMP/SCALLOPS:
1. Garlic Lemon/butter
2. Cilantro Citrus/butter
3. Southwest Marinade/butter
4. Lemon Poppyseed/butter
5. Orange Vinegrette/butter
6. Chipotle Steakhouse rub/butter

Thursday Night

Wow is tomorrow already Friday? Friday for me usually means more work is coming. I've worked 3 Friday nights in a row and miss having a Friday off from time to time. Not much new going on here. On the dinner front...we had Pork Chops Italiano last night. Homemade Gourmet Italian Mozzarella Meatloaf Mix makes an awesome coating for pork chops. I topped it with spaghetti sauce and shredded parmesan cheese. That made a terrific C.O.S.T. cooking meal (Cook once and serve twice) because I had extra spaghetti sauce for Spaghetti tonight. For a super economical Spaghetti sauce I use this recipe:
Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste .
5 tbsps homemade gourmet homestyle spaghetti sauce mix .
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce .
2 c water Directions
Step #1 In a pot, mix all ingredients, bring to a boil.
Step #2 Reduce heat & let simmer for 20 to 30 mins.
Step #3 If desired, a 1 lb cooked ground meat (hamburger, ground turkey or italian sausage- or a combination), & heat through- about 5 mins.
Enjoy

and I forgot to post my "weigh in Wednesday" update. I lost another pound when I weighed in at the center. I am sure my scale said I lost more! It must have been my jeans. That makes total loss so far of 6 pounds in 3 weeks. Not too bad!

We made it to the beach today

It has been really hot here in my neck of the woods. I picked Josh up
from school today and we went to the beach. It was really fun to see
them run around and enjoy the sand and water. It was so relaxing to be
there after a super busy weekend. I love that Monday is my day off.

Monday

I had the busiest weekend ever. We did the 30 hour famine with our youth group from Friday-Saturday and then a busy day at church (I had to teach 3 and 4 year olds and then lead a teen confirmation class). I came home EXHAUSTED. Well today is my day off so I am going to do my Flylady Weekly Home Blessing and hang out with Jenna (my 3 year old) and then pick up Josh from school today since DH (dear husband) has a late meeting. It is a beautiful day here in San Diego and I might even take the kids to the beach if I feel up to the challenge. I don't know I have a ton of catch up to do today too. Mondays are usually "Spaghetti" dinner days so I need to pick up some ground beef and bread at the store since I went through my "stash" of pre-cooked ground beef that was in the freezer. I am excited because my Homemade Gourmet Coffee is in route to me via UPS and I am completely out. I am having de-caf today and I just really need the caffeine! (-;

So today I feel like whining.

I have to miss my MOPS meeting today )-: because any time "margin" that I had in my day is now GONE. Arrrg. I love MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and am sad to miss it. If any of you have little ones still at home, I highly recommend MOPS. You get childcare, a hot breakfast, Mentor Moms at each table to help hold babies (if you want) so you can eat or just get up to get a cup of coffee. The speakers that come and share are awesome. I always feel like a better mom after each MOPS meeting. I will pop into MOPS for a few minutes today because I have some things I have to help with there, but I will have to duck out ASAP and get started on my crazy day.

Today is one of those days that I have 100 things to do and not enough time to do them. So better get going.

Weigh in Wednesday

Well I actually weigh in on Tuesday. I lost 2 pounds since my last weigh in last week., (-;
that makes a total of almost 5 pounds gone in 2 weeks. I have to stop weighing myself every day! It makes me too crazy if it goes down every day a pound and then back up and then down...instead I am going to focus on the once a week weigh in and enjoy it coming off 2 pounds at a time every week (if I stick to it!). We had Chipotle and cake at Youth Group last night and I REALLY wanted to eat it but I was good and had my own "diet" burrito and "diet" dessert. That was hard. I LOVE cake!

My silly josh

I just love this boy! His cool uncle gave him this mustache kit for
Easter and he has had fun with it.

My latest card creation

I made this card (and a bunch of meal kits) for some friends going
through a difficult time. Stamping and cooking what can be better? I
am off to bed. I weigh in tomorrow for my new diet. I have stuck to it
but I think my body has adapted to a low cal diet and slowed down on
me! My fingers are crossed! I made a bunch of taco soup on Sunday and
I really wanted some. So I have been good. Yeah me!

Now I know what a back-flow is

We are back online with water. Hurray. Now I know what to look for
next time we dont have water. What I dont remember is whether or not
this was in or outside of the fence before it was stolen. We have such
low-life copper thievery around here. Wish I could post my dog outside
to keep on eye on things but she loves to come in and sleep next to my
bed every night. She usually hears things outside but not this time.
They must have been sneaky sneaky.

Yeah the plumber is here!

They are out there putting in the new copper pipe so we can have water
again.

arrrrg I have no water!

Someone came last night and turned off the water and stole our copper backflow pipe. How low is that. Major bummer. We have no water until it gets replaced (hopefully today). The things that happen while you are snug in bed asleep.

Princess day

Jenna and I were playing princess today and she was totally excited to see that I had my own princess dress...yup I busted out the wedding dress and it fits!!!! whoo hoo. She wouldn't let me take it off so we blasted the soundtrack to Enchanted, put on clear lipgloss, put on our dancing shoes and danced around the living room. It was fun! Josh my 6 year old came home from school and was very amused. I didn't take a picture of myself to blog...SORRY! I kept praying that no one would come to the door and discover me in my wedding dress. It was embarrassing but fun too.

and I had to add:

After our play time I left my wedding dress out (all zipped up in the garment bag) in my room. This morning she comes in while I am sleeping and unzips it, gets out the dress and says "get up mommy and put on the princess dress." Too cute!

This is what I get to eat

No wonder I am loosing weight! Here is an idea of what my special eating

plan entails. Soup. Salad. Fruit. Yogurt. Water. More water and lots of bathroom stops!

I have over 10 meals in my freezer

I am thrilled to have a HUGE amount of dinner kits in my freezer.
These are so easy to put together and I have healthy meals all ready
to cook for my family (l have 14 meals and all of them will have
leftovers.) I am so happy right now.

Dinner in your Rice Cooker

Need a casserole fast? Use your rice cooker! Thats what I am doing for
family dinner tonight. Here are the steps:

1) dumping into my rice cooker this
casserole mix (Southwest casserole mix from Homemade Gourmet)

2)
adding 3 cups of water (just follow the casserole directions and use
the amount of water on package)

3) adding 1 cup of cooked ground beef from my fridge (a Homemade Gourmet Girl always has cooked ground beef ready in her freezer or fridge)

4) turning rice cooker on and dinner is done in minutes.

I will serve it over baked tortilla chips and add some shredded lowfat
cheese on top. Yummmmmy! Except I am on a diet and eating my own
frozen meal and get to watch my family eat a yummy dinner without me.
But hey I lost 5 pounds in a week and feel great. (-:

and FYI this casserole takes ONE HOUR to cook in the OVEN and only 30 MINUTES in the RICE COOKER. Works for me!

I should be in bed.

Stayed up late watching a movie with some high schoolers from church
and stamped these cards during it. I am definitely a beginner stamper
but hey I am having fun. Stampin kept my hands and brain busy so I
could resist the ice cream every one else was enjoying! Got a busy day
at church tomorrow so better go to bed.

My grocery list

Well I may be on a new diet but my family still needs to eat. I picked
14+ of my family's favorite Homemade Gourmet recipes and I am off to
Costco with my recipe cards to get "meat" in bulk. The neat thing is
that (unlike super suppers) I can choose Organic, lowfat, or low salt
ingredients.
These meals are super easy to prepare and to 'customize' plus
affordable. I went to Super Suppers and had fun last month but 1)
spent much more $ for less food 2) my kids only enjoyed 2 of the 6
meals I made. At least for my family Homemade Gourmet works much
better for us.

On the menu:

• Asian Pork Tenderloin (slowcooker)
• Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce (stovetop)
• Chicken Tortilla Soup (stovetop)
• Italian Mozzarella Meatloaf (oven)
• Pork Chops Italiano (oven)
• Garlic Lemon Chicken (slowcooker or BBQ)
• Dream Spaghetti (oven) KID FAVE!
• Baked Italian Chicken Nuggets (oven) EVERYONE FAVE!
• Oven Roasted Potatoes (oven)
• Grilled Cilantro Citrus Chicken (bbq)
• Oven Crispy Kansas City Chicken (oven)
• Taco Soup (stovetop or microwave) MY FAVE
• Slow Cooker BBQ chicken (slowcooker)
• Shepherds Pie (oven) TIM's FAVE
• Burgandy Beef Tips (slowcooker)
• Italian Round Steak (slowcooker)

Another dinner in minutes.

Dinner time really can be EASY! All I did to get dinner prepped was
this: Grabbed my slowcooker from the cupboard, tossed in some frozen
chicken breasts from costco,dumped in a can of diced tomatoes, a few
scoops of southwest seasoning and added some diced potatoes. Thats
it! Dinner is all set! I will put some HG Spanish rice in my rice
cooker later (it cooks without me! So I can go play with the kids
while it works its magic) add a bagged salad and there ya go! Faster
than going out to eat, healthier, and cheaper! I will use the leftover
chicken for taco soup later this weekend. I adore Taco Soup and you
probably know that by now! -g

Easter follow up

I forgot to post about my Easter menu. It was yummmmmy! We had my
favorite oven roasted potatoes seasoned with taco soup seasoning of
course! (the recipe is on this blog) I baked a spiral sliced ham
sprinkled with spiced dip mix from Homemade Gourmet (this is a real
crowd pleaser!)and for sides we enjoyed frozen sweet corn, Hawaian
Sweet rolls, and Cranberry Pasta Salad (another favorite of mine from
Homemade Gourmet).
It was fun having family over my house to cook for. I will post more
Picts later.  Cruise over to my BIL blog for some awesome picts here

Stampin' fun!

I went over to Heathers stamp camp last night and made this adorable
coaster mini album. I just love making stuff. I've even started
dreaming of stamping! I think about it far too often...but hey its fun
and productive, right? I have been organizing my craft area and
clearing space so I can have more access to my goodies.

On the throne

I thought this was funny! Jenna on her "throne" wearing her princess
dress. Love it! Time to put kiddos to bed and stamp!! I got my SU
starter kit yesterday! I couldn't resist the price and I will totally
use the goodies to make cards, journals and scrapbooks with my high
school girls and learn to be a better crafter.
Creative Memories was fun and I will still buy it, but SU has more
bling for my pages. (-:

My life right now

Sometimes I enjoy taking picts of
things around the house that represent our "season" of life or that
remind me of the the things my kids are currently interested in.
Things change so fast and I love to capture the memories of
today....with sweet little ones in the house! Here is Jenna's veggie
tale animals she set up next to her "princess" book she was reading.
And of course the potty! 2 successful potty dances today as she pee-
peed in the potty. Life is good!

Disney World!!!

Today was a busy day and I really need to get to bed. Instead I am looking at the pictures of our DW trip and I soooo want to go back. It was truly magical and so much fun! Our family had a great time together. We enjoyed a wonderful week with our friends too! One discovery I made is that making group plans in the morning...in a new time zone without Starbucks can be challenging for all. It took us till noon to get into the groove of things. The kids did great but traveling with little ones can be craziness, but overall everything went way better than anticipated.

My 3 year old (jenna) can't stop talking about Princess Castles now and obsessing about all things princess related. It was a fantastic vacation. I put a link on the right to our photos (see my link section). I've enjoyed chatting on the Disney World thread on Splitcoast Stampers (another link you can see on the right) and having a great time talking to other peeps about Disneyworld and the trips they are planning. And this is me with Disney ears on. I rarely post pictures of myself...so here is I for all to see. (-; I only wish to go back and spend as much time there as possible. I'll settle for Disneyland in May with my hubby for our 10 year anniversary. (-;

I love my crockpot!

Guess how long this took me to throw together? I opened the ziplock
bag of garlic lemon pork chops from my fridge and added it to my
slowcooker. Washed and diced the potatoes to toss in...how long did it
take? All done in 1 minute and 25 seconds! I turned it on and I have
dinner all set for tonight.

My own pool!

Can you believe I got a villa to myself
( no hubby and no kids) with my own pool for less than $100 dollars.
Go Priceline.com!
So here is the Pict of the pool I promised.
And no I didn't skinny dip or chunky dunk. haha. I just dipped my toes in since I didn't bring a swimsuit! I forgot to tell you that the Lord also provided me with my own coffee maker and full size canister of fresh ground coffee! That was in my hotel room and if you know me at all, I am a major coffee snob and can't live w/o my morning cup of coffee! It was as though God gave me ALL the things he knew I would love to remind me that when I take time away with Him, he will truly give me the desires of my heart and prove to be an excellent date! Today was the reflective retreat and it was amazing!

Simply scrapping the night away

Another altered comp book I made tonight. Off to bed so I can enjoy
tomorrow. (-:

Altered comp book prayer journal

Here is my first creation of the night. I plan to use this tomorrow at
the retreat I am attending. I just love simply scrapping kits from SU.
They are so quick and easy.

Wow! I am so blessed!

God is good that is for sure! I pricelined a hotel up in Newport beach
so I can be closer to an all day Reflective Retreat I am going on
tomorrow for women in youth ministry. Look what I got! My own
scrapbooking table! The lady at the front desk said "we are completely
booked so I upgraded you to a Villa." I have a fire place and even my
own private heated swimming pool! I feel like I went away on a date
with the Lord and he honored me with his best. This is amazing. I
can't even begin to explain how loved I feel right now. I will post a
picture of the pool tomorrow
Since its too dark to see right now.

My latest creative Projects

I picked these little photo albums up at Target for under $2 each. I took my wonderful Simply Scrappin kit from Stampin Up (I can't remember the name of it) and made matching covers for all the albums (replacing the cheesey pink flamingos and ugly green flowers on the original covers). All I needed to do this was a pair of scissors and some good adhesive (my favorite adhesive is the tape runner from Creative Memories). Now I have four cute matching albums that sit in a basket in our youth room at church. They are filled with pictures I had stuck in a box for ages. The youth group teens and my own kids have really enjoyed looking through these albums.

Where Have I been?

I am behind on blogging. I know!
It is a super busy season at church (my FT job) with Easter coming up and we have a big Capital Campaign going on too (fundraising). I waste tooo much time on the computer so I am trying to cut down on that.

Last Friday I spoke to over 100 women on "Creating S-More Sparks, Smiles, and Joy in Your Marriage" It was awesome and a lot of fun.
God continues to affirm my preaching/speaking gift and after giving talks I always come home really energized. This talk always helps me to re-focus on my own marriage too and enjoy some awesome lovin with my hubby. Anyways just wanted to share. It was fun. Hear a Sunday talk from church
if you are at all interested. It's a good one too and filled with lots of stories.

Making my Menu Monday

I went to the store today and stocked up on groceries and then came
home to get started on my menu for the week. Using my Homemade Gourmet
favorites I put together Cilantro Citrus chicken and Homestyle
spaghetti sauce (I even cooked the noodles too). I also cooked up 3
pounds of lean chicken breast and chopped it up and placed in (2) separate quart
size freezer bags. These are what I call meal starter kits. All I have
to do is add them to stir fry or turn into a casserole or yummy
tacos. Tim and I went to Super Suppers and I am excited to have 5
meals from there in my freezer too. We have a freezer full of meal
options...do you?

One Point Sweet Bread Muffins

One of my pals has a birthday today so I am making her some Mini Sweet Bread Muffins and trying to lighten them up by using healthier ingredients. They make 24 small muffins and are only 1 point each (for those doing Weight Watchers like me!)

Here is the recipe:

• 1/2 cup fat-free egg substitute

• 2 large bananas (mashed)
  
• 1 container Tree Top Cinnamon apple sauce
• 1 package of Homemade Gourmet Sweet Bread Mix
  

Mix well and put in mini muffin baking pans (I filled each mini muffin cup plenty full to the top) and bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until done.
I will let you know how they taste! I put a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon on the top that adds 0 points (I barely used any).

Puppy love

Jenna with our dog Boo ( picture above)

I am way behind on blogging and I promise to catch up soon. In short
we went to Orlando and had a blast and then Mammoth to snowboard (I
ski) and the stomach flu paid a visit to our entire family in between.

Already over?

Do I really have to leave? It's been so much fun. It's always sad when
vacation is over. We head home from our magical vacation tomorrow. We
have had a wonderful time.

Worth every penny

A pic from disneyworld today. Jenna having fun on dumbo.

Way cool restaurant!

Look! This is a restaurant booth at a super fun restaurant at
Disney's Hollywood studios. We are all having a great time in Orlando.

Price of water?

The joys of travel. A $3.22 bottle of water! I can get a latte for
that price! Wonder how much a latte is? So the airport won't let you
bring water past security so then you are stuck paying $3 for it after
the security checkpoint. Hmmm who came up with that idea?
Someone is making money. And going through security with small
kids....I was sweating by the end of it. A great workout. We are
obviously at the airport getting ready to party with mickey. Hope
jenna does ok she seems certain that going on the plane is out of the
question. She is not a happy camper. Ttyl

One Point Taco Soup

Taco Soup Tuesday-
I tried to post this yesterday but Blogger or my computer was wigging out. Here is a recipe for One Point Taco Soup (for weight watchers)

Grocery List:
1 pound extra lean ground turkey (cooked...and hopefully in your freezer already, right?)
1 med onion diced
2 med zucchini diced
2 yellow squash diced
1 (15oz) can of black beans (drained)
2 (15oz) cans of Fat Free beef broth
4 celery sticks diced
1 package of Homemade Gourmet Taco Soup Mix
or 5 tbs of the Pantry Staple

Spray large skillet with cooking spray and saute veggies.
Place all ingredient in a medium soup pot and cook until warm and veggies are tender. Stir often.
Great with Texas Cornbread! Use egg substitute in the corn bread and save on points!

What's for Dinner?

Too tired to think about dinner today...too much going on. I was
thankful that I still have leftover shredded chicken in the freezer
and corn bread muffins in the freezer too. Which reminds me....go get
the cornbread out of freezer. I dumped the lump of frozen shredded
chicken into this pan (see pic) then I added Bonnies Blue Ribbon Chili
mix from HG, some pinto beans, black beans, and diced tomatoes. Dinner
is on its way to being done! Tuesdays are super busy and I am glad
that dinner is easy (and healthy) tonight. I am simmering it on super
low til we decide to eat.

Stock Your Freezer Sunday

My favorite product! I LOVE these. I can not stand washing my crockpot with all the "drippings" and juices on the bottom. With these wonderful liners all I have to do is carefully pull out the liner from the crockpot and clean-up is DONE. I was bummed because my local grocery store stopped carrying these but guess what? I found them today at Target and they were way cheaper there too. I bought 5 packages of them! They come with 4 liners in a package for under $2. Totally worth it! I cannot say enough how much easier these things make my life!

oh wanted to add that Michelle over at the Stamp Workshop is offering a GENEROUS blog candy. See her blog for a chance to win. Link I also have her listed on my list of blogs that I visit. Look for Michelle.

I got published!

I got published! I sent in an article to the Kitchen Connection magazine and they printed it (-;
For you card makers out there this is the equivalent to me of getting your card put in a paper crafting or SU publication.

I love this magazine and the MANY ideas it provides to stock my freezer myself with yummy meal kits.

Digital Scrapbooking Layout

Another digital scrappin' page I made with Storybook Creator Plus. I am trying to make a layout a day and it's SUPER EASY with this software. Photoshop was cool...but this is much easier! I dragged and dropped the photos into the layout and added the sentiment from the Gazebo Digital kit. Yeah!

Ramblings about Stamping...

I have been cruising (when I should be in bed!) other blogs and seeing everyones BEAUTIFUL stamped cards from Splitcoast Stampers. I have realized a couple of things...mainly I have a lot of catching up to do! I am not a gifted paper crafter...but I am pretty wicked on the computer. I need to stamp more often so I can get better at it. I don't have a natural "eye" for such things. Did you know that in 2002 I went to my first Stampin Up party ever and signed up to be a demo right after that? I am sort of an all or nothing person and I love discounts. Once I learned about SU... It was like a whole new world was opened up to me. I had never heard of such a thing before. What's a stamping party?

As for the demo part... I wasn't really good at it and it didn't last too long. Cutting card stock is NOT my thing. After that short run, my stamps sat in a drawer for 4 years until I was reintroduced to Stampin Up last year. Even though I "scrapbook" (lately into digital scrappin) more than stamp cards, I would love to at least make Bday cards and Thank you cards this year and slowly get better at paper crafting. Here is a card I made for the FIRST SCS sketch challenge I have ever participated in (with the Flybaby group)

Be nice...I am new at this still! It's a bit crooked and I own hardly any embellishments so I did the best I could.

Digital Scrapbooking with Storybook Creator

I tried digital scrapbooking with Photoshop but didn't get too far! It was fun, but toooo hard to figure out. I recently purchased and downloaded this super easy to use software from the Creative Memories website. It's called Storybook Creator Plus and is awesome for easy digital scrap-booking These are the digital scrapbooking pages I made. They were quick and easy to do and no mess to clean up! Works for me... Plus it does a lot of the same things as Photoshop.

Here is my week at a glance (the fun stuff anyways)

Weigh in Wednesdays:
Went to Weight Watchers this morning (yes it's Thursday...) I didn't lose anything but I did work out at the gym a bunch (ok only 3 times...but that was more than I have done in the last 4 months). My goal is to WRITE everything down that I eat this week.
It can be done!

Milestone: My daughter peed for the first time in the potty yesterday! Whooo hoo. We do the potty dance (a wonderful celebration) and she gets candy for success. I have an adorable picture of her on the potty...but decided I probably shouldn't post a naked picture of my almost 3 year old on the internet for the world to see...it is super cute though!

Taco Soup Tuesday... I am behind on posting recipes but we did enjoy Taco Soup this week! Here is how I C.O.S.T. cooked with it: (cook once serve twice)

Step #1 - I used my slow cooker and cooked 7 chicken breast on Monday with taco soup seasoning from Homemade Gourmet and diced tomatoes.

Step #2- After chicken was cooked I shredded half of it and made the Taco Soup and we had that for dinner (yum my FAVORITE) with Texas cornbread.

Step #3- I put the leftover chicken breast in the fridge and made Chicken Quesadillas on Tuesday (my family LOVES this).

We enjoyed leftovers for lunches during the week.

Digital Scrapbooking: I have been playing around with Storybook Creator Plus from Creative Memories and been making some pages. That has been fun! It is much easier to use than photoshop and I can still use all the fun "digi scrappin" things I have on my computer as well as digital kits from Creative Memories. I will post a picture of my layout for you to see.


That's my week....at least the fun stuff anyways!

Stock Your Freezer Sundays

(picture taken from my phone so pardon the quality)

I meant to post this last week but never got around to it! How can the San Diego Chargers lose the playoff when they have little Jenna sitting in her Charger cheerleading outfit, watching the game, and eating pizza? Isn't she cute? I love this picture. Wish I would have used my good camera. Oh well.

As for Stock Your Freezer Sunday...we have had wonderful meals delivered from church friends all week (because of my DH's recent surgery) and not had to use up my stash of Homemade Gourmet meal kits from my freezer yet. So I still have 7 meals all put together and ready to cook for this week! Yahooo. We have enjoyed all the meals and my 6 year old DS has been so excited to see who drops off dinner each night. We had a terrific Lasagna tonight (1 cup = 8 points). Yum. Well good night!

Look I actually made a card!

I actually stamped a card! Proof I do make cards from time to time. Although I am more of a scrapbooker (and better at that!). This is from my Mix and Mingle set from Stampin Up and the inside sentiment says "You always pop up when I need you."

Weigh in Wednesdays

I am behind on everything and way too busy this week!
Back on Weight Watchers starting tomorrow (-; I did re-join the gym today. I picked a new one that is only $19 a month, closer to home and has child care. It felt good to get some activity into my day.

Making Memories Monday: My front porch

I was admiring my children's cute boots and bikes out my front door. It was so cute I took a picture of course! Take one peek at my front porch and you can immediately see what stage of life this household is in (complete with Huggies boxes by the garbage can). I am already thinking that one day I am going to miss this. I treasure having these sweet little ones in my life and I really want to enjoy their childhood with them. It goes by so fast. I feel like I need to take pictures of every little thing to scrapbook so that I don't forget all of these sweet (and sometimes challenging) moments. These are going into a scrapbook called "All about us" which is my attempt to document everything that represents our family in this stage of life. It's a quick little picfolio album from Creative Memories that pictures just slide into. I am good at taking pictures of my kids but I always forget the video camera. How do you document the moments of your life?

Weigh in Wednesdays

No I did not go to my Weight Watchers meeting, but I think I lost weight! I haven't been snacking too much with all that has been going on.

I have not gotten back to my normal blogging topics yet...of course that is due to the crazy week and 1/2 we just had. Things are slowly getting back to normal. Tim is getting his energy and strength back. I think he lost 20 pounds. Tomorrow we go to his post-op appointment and hopefully get the portable IV removed. The meds he is on make him pretty tired. I caught a cold (I call it kennel cough from being cooped up in the hospital) and have been coughing my head off. After dinner tonight (one benefit of a family emergency is all the yummy meals we get delivered from church!!) Tim went to rest and I looked at the dishes, Christmas decorations still up, unbathed kids, and messy house and wondered if someone could come in and take over for me so I can go sleep! I am exhausted. The kids have been high energy and refuse to sleep in their own beds. Serious melt downs if I even attempt to make them sleep in their beds. After they both screamed at the top of their lungs I gave in (again) and put them in my bed. The first night I was one happy mama cat with my little kittens snuggled up to me for the night. But after 2 nights of them moving around and fighting over who got to sleep closest to me, this mama cat is ready to send the little ones back to their room to sleep, but I lost that battle. Tim is still sleeping in a chair in the living room since his IV and stitches make it too uncomfortable for him to lie down in bed.

I am thankful for all the friends and family who have pitched in. From getting Josh to school, to babysitters for Jenna and of course all the home delivered meals...things are not so bad. I don't know what I would do without our wonderful church family. They have done so much for us.

We have a lot on our calendar these upcoming weeks and I pray that we can all be healthy and energized in the coming weeks. So off to watch American Idol. I hate listening to people sing on TV but the episodes with all the lame-o singers is amusing.

oops forgot to pack Josh's lunch or dry his uniform for tomorrow.

Sunday

We made it home yesterday from the hospital at 4pm. Tim has a "Picc" line in his arm so he can finish up his I V antibiotics at home. We have a home health nurse who comes in to check on him and do his vitals and such. Today she is going to show me how to change his I V (it goes in a little fanny pack so he can move around) and dispenses the antibiotic on its own all day and night. Thankfully I got to sleep in my own bed last night. Tim slept in the living room on our big blue chair/ottoman since it was the most comfortable way to sleep. My mom has the kids until later today which was a huge blessing! I had no energy to get up this morning and was thankful I could sleep in. Our youth group was sweet and put up posters on our front window. That was fun.
The nurse is coming soon so I better run.

Finally!

Home at last.

Sent from iphone

Look hospital candy!

I ran home from the hospital really quick to take a shower while our
2nd mom Karen (thanks Karen!) stayed with tim. I had to take out the
trash, get the wet clothes out of the dryer, get the mail, and throw
away rotting fruit and all those things you need to do when you are
unexpectedly not home for 6 days.

And look what I found...a care package from our good friends from Ohio
that made us laugh more than we have laughed in weeks. We also got a
nice card in the mail from one of tim's students and a sweet envelope
on our doorstep from a family at church with cheerful pictures their
kids drew for tim (star wars and hello kitty).

Tim was touched and really teary eyed to get all this. We appreciate
everything so much!

Friday hospital happenings

We get to go home tomorrow! Whoohooo.
Sent from iphone

Look what I got done

Just had my first chance to do something fun at the hospital...mount
these new stamps onto the wood blocks. Tim is sleeping and I am
watching "sick" tv. Thats what I call the price is right. The only
thing on tv back in the elementary school days when I stayed home
sick. Too many lame commercials on day time tv! I am turning it off.

Hospital Happenings Thursday am

I wanted to post a pic of these cool flowers from the 6th graders.
Cool dragon huh?

Do you know what is funny about a hospital stay? Farting and burping
is celebrated and a sign of post surgery health. (-: I told tim I
would get some stickers and give him one after every toot and burp.
Words I never thought I would utter!

Sent from iPhone

Hospital happenings

Thursday highlights:
1)Getting cool red flowers from the 6th graders at Santa fe Christian
(came with a sweet looking red dragon too). Tim was so touched he got
all teary eyed.

2)Tim's brother came down from the los angeles area and sat with tim
awhile to help lift his spirit and give me some time to get a few
things done.

3)Having people stop by (even just for 5 minutes) has been a nice
distraction and makes the day go a bit faster.

4) Seeing both my kids today.

Lowlights:
1)Still here and Tim had a tough day.
2) losing my voice. Tim likes the room cold and I am under the vent
most of the time . Brrrrrr.

I sure will appreciate having all my family home and healthy! Simple
things like being around the table with a home cooked meal and seeing
my husband actually able to eat will be appreciated like never before!

Hospital happenings

I guess weigh in Wednesdays will make a reappearance after the
craziness of this week (so yes the holidays proved a challenge with
yummy food around).

As for Tim:
Slowly getting better. The good news is that he can FINALLY have water
and clear fluids. He will probably go home on Saturday. The bad news
is that makes 7 days in the hospital with all our deductables needing
to be met for the new year. Yikes! And then a week at home on
antibiotics still.

We had a nice surprise of tim's parents coming to see him for a bit.
They drove all the way here from the Fresno area (Hanford) and drove
back up after a quick visit. Nothing like your mom around when you
don't feel good.

And we keep getting wonderful flowers like these from Santa Fe
Christian School and others. It is so much fun too see a hospital
volunteer walking down the hall with flowers and then discovering that
they are for you!

Joshua (my sweet 6 year old) came again for dinner and he makes the
whole floor happy. Everyone loves to see him. A nice Korean man down
the hall (who has a teen daughter here) bought him an ice cream. As
soon as he saw josh again today he patted his head and hugged him.
Even the grumpy old man in the room across the way gets nicer when
josh is here! We have been here so long (ok I know it could be worse)
that we are making friends.

I am thankful for everyone who has pitched in to help us this week. I
am doing good thanks to the "jail break" I get when my friend Karen
comes to sit with tim so I can run home to shower. I get a bit teary
eyed from time to time because I miss the kids.

Sent from iPhone

Still at the hospital

My husband had his appendix removed yesterday (Monday) and is
recovering slowly but surely. It is going to be awhile for him to
recover because his appendix burst 2 days before we came in. Today was
much better for me since my friend karen came and sat with tim so i
could go home and shower and take some tylenol for a migraine. She is
like a second mom and very nurturing. Just what he needed (and me too!)

We had a few visitors too and that made for a nice change of pace for
me. It can get a little boring and lonely without anyone here. A
wonderful youth group mom dropped off some new magazines for me and
that made me smile! I was also able to see both of the kids for awhile
( lunch with jenna and dinner with josh). So far everyone is doing ok
but we sure miss the simple things like dinner around the meal table
with all 4 of us there.

Ever since the surgery I am sleeping here in a reclin